Petals Sailing in the Wind
by Ryan Libra
Summary: A pokemon learns that immortality has a price. Was solitude the only way to go around it? Or could it be that the answer lay in the humble flower and the petals that fall from it?


Author's Notes  
Inspired by Natsume Yuujinchou, a wonderful anime about loss, loneliness, and the redemptive power of friendship and family.

I don't own Pokémon. I don't even own a Switch. Thank goodness my brother has one, hee.

\- x x x -

**Petals Sailing in the Wind**

White petals sailed in the wind.

The creature regarded the tombstone in front of it.

It sighed. How fast this human had grown. It remembered his brilliant blue eyes as he challenged the creature to a battle. The boy had adjusted his black cap before sending out one of his pokémon, a spectral sword with a round shield and tassels that waved as if they had lives of their own. In hindsight, the Steel-Ghost pokémon had suited the boy. The leadership he had sported was not of grand kings or strict generals, but of a solid, dependable comrade who mobilized his pokémon and friends through obstinate encouragement and quiet example.

_Such strong eyes_, it had thought while staring at the human boy. It had stomped its forelegs onto the ground before launching its own barrage of techniques: orbs of energy channeled from the moon, forceful rams with its majestic horns, and multi-colored light from nature that granted it extraordinary strength. Unflinching, the boy had countered with the flying blade of his Aegislash, as well as a pressing onslaught from his other pokémon. Fire, acid, and otherworldly energy had torn the air between them.

Seconds had raced into minutes. The creature hadn't realized that pokémon battles could be so enjoyable. The boy had then readied his pokéball. As the creature turned into red incandescence, it could never forget how the young human had maintained eye contact. It had been captured, but more so by those brilliant blue eyes than that spherical contraption.

After that, it had fought for its new trainer. They had confronted the Elite Four and had defeated the champion. They had faced off against the guardian of balance deep inside a rugged, dusty cave. They had even traveled around the grand metropolis of Lumiose under the instructions from a shady man and had apprehended some goons.

The boy had continued his life relishing the heat of battles. After getting married and settling down, he had decided to release the creature back into the wild.

In the blink of an eye, the boy had turned into a man. The creature had then visited sometimes to say hello, to observe the sun finish its ancient arc in the sky, to watch the stars together.

"What is it like to live a long time?" the man had softly asked as he raised a mug of tea to his lips.

The creature had eyed him sideways. _The full moon tonight must be making him pensive_, it had thought. It had been rare for him to start a conversation during their star-gazing evenings. Or maybe it had been because of the numerous white strands in his hair and the lines on his face.

The man had faced the creature with those blue eyes that never failed to draw it in.

"Will you be alright when I go?"

One would think that the passage of all these decades would dim the memory, but the creature still remembered averting its gaze.

The man had then laughed. "Silly thing for a mere human like me to say to a pokémon like you, huh?"

And in another blink of an eye, he had passed on.

The creature bowed its head. The white flowers strewn over his grave caressed its nose and breathed out a subtle aroma. They were lovely. As the wind blew, a few petals bid their blooms goodbye and swirled with the breeze. The creature's eyes followed their dance. They were indeed beautiful, but fleeting.

It cried out against the setting sun, against a sky dyed orange and blue. It would never allow itself to cross paths with a human again.

With that thought firmly in mind, the creature leapt away, never to return.

\- x x x -

Yellow petals sailed in the wind.

The creature regarded the tombstone in front of it.

It took in a deep, ragged breath.

It had known that she had little time left; after all, she had been in the twilight of her years. She had taken residence just outside Santalune Forest in a tiny bungalow that featured a quiet garden and an enclosure. With meager savings and modest possessions, her life had been simple. Yet this simple life had saved the life of many others.

That enclosure beside her home had been filled with different kinds of pokémon: silent Fletchling that should have been twittering non-stop, listless Bunnelby that should have been frolicking about, motionless Furfrou that should have been curious about everything, and sleeping bugs that should have been foraging for food. The garden had also been shelter for crying Budew whose tears seemed endless and sulking Flabébé that clung to the stalks of their flowers as if there was nothing else in life left for them.

She had taken them all in, these discarded dregs of trainer society. It was inevitable for so many human children to discard unwanted pokémon in their journeys, after all. The creature wondered if society taught such values to them, or simple didn't care.

The first time that the creature had seen this old lady, she had been feeding the little ones berries from her garden. It had watched as she had coaxed the food into their mouths with gentle strokes and soothing burbles.

_Kindness in humans were like blooms in a desert_, it had thought before leaping off.

It hadn't known how long before returning; after all, the concept of time was fluid for a being that had existed for centuries. It had also forgotten how many times it had visited that bungalow. Every time it had been there, the old lady had always been occupied with feeding those pokémon, bathing them, sometimes singing to them. The creature could have listened to that voice all day, even if it had cracked in the higher notes and had almost disappeared in the lower ones. Who would have known that human music could feel so warm?

It would never forget that final visit.

"I know you're there," she had told the wind as she tended to her garden.

The creature had blinked. How had she known?

"You won't need to worry about an old thing like me," she had continued. "My eyesight's failing, and I won't be able to keep this up for long. As you can see, I now need a cane to get around."

One of the pokémon in the garden, a Pansage with part of the foliage on its head missing, had whimpered in its sleep.

"Are you worried about these little ones?" the old lady had asked. "No need to fret; I'll make sure that they're well taken care of before finding new homes for them. Or releasing them back to the wild." The sigh that had ensued had been so deep that the creature had wondered what tragedies had flecked her past. "The problem is, most of the time they prefer to find a new human to be with. Must be hard to let go once a pokémon bonds with a trainer."

Closing its eyes for a few moments, the creature had released a sigh of its own.

"This little Pansage calms down once you give it flowers," she had continued. Her hands had moved to a yellow bloom to rub the petals between her fingers, as if touching a lover. "Soothing things, these flowers. I wonder what pacifies the little pokémon: is it their color? Patterns? Forms? Yes, I do believe those are things that make them beautiful. But for me, what truly enhances their beauty is the fact that they don't last forever." She had chuckled, and the creature hadn't been sure if it had been out of mirth, nostalgia, or something else. "Still, that doesn't stop me from being enchanted by them. Especially now with my eyesight going."

That had been its final visit to her. It wasn't sure how many days, weeks, months, or perhaps even years had glided by like clouds brought by the breeze, but it was here now, in front of her grave, which was surrounded by shrubs bearing yellow flowers. It had not been difficult to find; the old lady had lived near Santalune Forest, and so it was no surprise that her eternal rest would be beside it. The wind blew like a gentle breath, stirring up the fallen yellow petals on the ground. It carried whispers of her song.

The creature stayed in silence with its head lowered for a few moments. After raising its head, it plodded away and vowed to itself that it would never cross paths with a human ever again.

\- x x x -

Purple petals sailed in the wind.

The creature regarded the tombstone in front of it.

She had been its favorite.

Their meeting could not have been more agitating: extinguishing a forest fire. Acrid smoke had clogged the air and had muffled the cries and wheezes of fleeing pokémon. The inferno had consumed everything in its path, like a voracious beast unable to control its appetite. The blistering heat had been unbearable. Mustering up its power, the creature had covered the ground with a magical mist and had hoped that it would shield the fleeing pokémon from burns, asphyxiation, and other debilitating effects of the flames. Drawing on the power of nature, it had then bombarded the conflagration with attacks to extinguish them. Its efforts had been successful, but with the enormity of the blaze, it hadn't been sure if it would be able to stop the calamity.

"Frogadier, Water Pulse! Furfrou, Sand Attack! Onix, Rock Throw! Let's get this fire under control!"

From the corner of its eye, the creature had spotted a young woman with blonde hair tied in a ponytail running into the area. It hadn't had time to be surprised. After all, any hesitation could allow the flames to take advantage and grow again. It had continued to fire more Nature Power attacks at the sputtering flames until nothing had been left but glowing cinders and ashes. Without a moment lost, the two had then combed the remains of the forest for trapped, injured, or terrified pokémon. Very few had been left, as it had seemed that the Misty Terrain that the creature had set up had been valuable in the forest pokémon's escape.

Exhausted, the girl had stumbled through the burnt rubble towards the creature and had surveyed the devastation laid out before them. Trees, once lush with green foliage and full of pokémon that had made them their home, had stretched bare, blackened branches towards the sky as if cursing the heavens. Water, sand, and rocks from the attacks of the girl's pokémon had altered the scenery into a muddy landscape that made mobility difficult. The stench of their charred surroundings had made the creature wonder what they were still doing there.

"Why?" She had asked no one in particular. The despair in her tone could have been easily mistaken for fatigue.

The creature has closed its eyes in response. Life and destruction were a never-ending cycle; one birthed the other and repeated this cosmic and ancient rhythm over and over again. It was also the reason why the creature was never alone; for just as it was the representation of life and all that was living, so existed another that epitomized death and destruction.

The girl had sighed. "This won't be the last time humans and pokémon will need to work together to save the environment. We still have poaching in protected areas, other natural calamities like storms and floods, illegal logging, oil spills from large sea vessels, and a hundred other things." She had faced the creature and had locked onto its eyes. "I work to make the world a safe place for pokémon to live in and for trainers to journey in. I have a number of collaborations with other sectors of society, such as the police, lawyers, Pokémon Centers, the academe, and even the Elite Four and champion. I won't catch you in a pokéball, but would it be alright if I called on you to help out in case the going gets too tough? We can save more lives and homes that way. What do you think?"

_There are humans who do this?_ Never had it encountered a human whose goals in life aligned so strongly with its reason for existence. The creature had vowed not to cross paths anymore with them, but…

The creature had found itself nodding.

After that, it had never stayed too far away from the woman. Disasters had been few and far in between, but when they arrived, the creature had always heeded the woman's call. And it had loved working with her.

There had been that one call that had sent the creature dashing. When it had arrived, it had been puzzled to discover that there was no flood, storm, forest fire, or poachers to send packing. But what had been waiting was a disaster bigger than any of these.

Looking thinner than usual, she had stood by a rock on the beaches near a human settlement called Ambrette Town. The creature had vaguely remembered wondering why there was a bouquet of purple flowers on top of that rock. With the wind toying with her ponytail, the woman had faced the creature with a melancholic smile.

"Thank you for all the times you have helped me," she had started. "But as much as I want to continue, I'm afraid I have to stop.

"I have cancer."

Not comprehending her words, the creature had stared at her.

"Pokémon may not be familiar with it, but it's a disease that we humans have. In my case, the cancer has spread to the other parts of my body and caused a lot of damage. The doctors say that I don't have much time left to live. Maybe one or two months. A year, if I'm lucky."

The creature had felt weak. It had wanted to scream.

"These flowers are for you," the woman had told it as she laid the bouquet before its forelegs. "They're my favorite color." She had let out a long breath, as if letting go of a heavy burden. "When I'm gone, maybe you'll remember me when you see purple flowers." After that, she had wrapped her arms around its neck and had wept.

The creature had never known this kind of contact. All pokémon had never stayed close, as if its grand existence and lofty purpose did not permit such interaction. Even the few humans it had mingled with had kept their hands away from it out of awe and respect. But this woman… This embrace had seemed like the only correct decision at the moment.

An eternity seemed to have passed by in those arms.

The blink of an eye had occurred. It was now in front of this grave. The creature folded its legs, rested by the tombstone, and watched the bouquets of purple flowers surrounding it. A gust picked the petals from the flowers and launched them into the air. Sighing, it lowered its heads and nuzzled the bouquets.

Why was it such a fool? It knew that contact with these creatures called humans would only end in sorrow. So why couldn't it stop?

As the creature snorted at its own folly, more petals sailed in the air. Its eyes widened. It lifted its head and stared at the twirling petals, like purple-dressed dancers showing off their beauty. The old lady's words echoed back.

"_Yes, I do believe those are things that make them beautiful. But for me, what truly enhances their beauty is the fact that they don't last forever." She had chuckled, and the creature hadn't been sure if it had been out of mirth, nostalgia, or something else. "Still, that doesn't stop me from being enchanted by them._"

_That doesn't stop me from being enchanted by them_.

There was its answer.

As it stared at the swirling purple petals that were now slowly settling back to the ground, the creature resolved to cease that hopeless promise never to cross paths with humans again.

After all, it was like vowing never to admire flowers forever.

\- x x x -


End file.
